Exhibition - La Dolce Vita: cultural adventures with a 5-year-old.

Abstract

The Venice Biennale Arsenale and Giardini venues, Venice, Italy, 13 May–26 November 2017. Once every 10 years there is a golden year for contemporary art lovers like myself, as the Venice Biennale, documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany, and Skulptur Projekte Munster all coincide. This will be the first time we have tried all three as a family, so I wonder, can you still have a holiday with culture at its heart with a 5-year-old? We started during May half-term with raised eyebrows and ‘good luck with that’ expressions from playground compatriots as we headed off for part one in Venice. The 57th Venice Biennale is breathtaking in its scale, with two large curated shows at its heart, featuring 120 different artists, 86 National Pavilions, and numerous other shows spread around the islands of Venice. In previous years we had flitted around the shows without a care, but with a 5-year-old I worried how much, if any of it, we could do. La Biennale is one event that all artists want to be part of, which might explain why they raise their game to try to stand out from the crowd, this year with impressive results. Vajiko Chachkiani in the Georgian pavilion has brought a large peasants’ country house to Venice and it is raining inside, constantly, for 6 months. It is a truly multi-sensory experience with an amazing smell as the ancient wood becomes wet and begins to decay. Takahiro …